Desaad was once an innocent New God from New Genesis until he was corrupted by Darkseid. Darkseid lied to Desaad that the boy's bird was killed by his cat. Angered, Desaad was tricked into killing the cat to avenge his pet bird. After avenging his bird, Desaad went to Apokolips to become Darkseid's sadistic torturer and majordomo. He helped Darkseid kill Drax and take control of Apokolips. Later, Desaad worked with Bruno Mannheim and the Intergang to meet Darkseid's crimes on Earth.
The most sadistic and cruel member of Darkseid’s Elite has to be Desaad. The official tormentor and torturer of Darkseid’s Elite, DeSaad is a natural coward who revels in the pain and torment of others. Serving Darkseid out of fear, DeSaad never going against his master unless someone else does, so he can have some sense of deniability.
DeSaad has been known to train the New Gods of Apokolips. He nearly lost his life to the Source Wall and serves Darkseid in many of his plots, including the Final Crisis, where he possessed Mary Marvel. DeSaad is immortal, super strong, telepathic, and a master creator of weapons and torture devices.
Other Media
Superman: The Animated Series
Kalibak offered to kill Superman himself but Darkseid refused. Seeing this, Desaad manipulated Kalibak into going to Earth to kill Superman, claiming if he succeeded, Darkseid would accept Kalibak as his son. Kalibak agreed and went to Earth to fight the Man of Steel. Darkseid later learned that Kalibak left for Earth and punished him for his failure.
Desaad is set to appear in the upcoming 2021 film, Zack Snyder's Justice League, where he will be portrayed by Peter Guinness. He was originally intended to appear in the theaterical cut where he would be introduced as one of the Apokoliptian Priests, but he ended up being cut from the film.
Gallery
Desaad in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
